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Where are Kevin and Ruth right now?Tiraspol, Transnistria...the country that doesn't exist.

Where are they going next? Northern Moldova. Arrive December 11th.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Chairs are more dangerous than sharks.

Hmm. That title's a little different. I'll explain in a moment. We had such a busy day that we didn't get everything done that we wanted to. But it was a beautiful day. In fact the locals were saying that yesterday was the best day they've had so far this summer.

First stop was the Bristol Zoo. We've been to a few zoos recently so we almost didn't go to this one. But we were attracted by the fact that Bristol Zoo is the fifth oldest zoo in the world, celebrating their 175th anniversary this year. Plus, they have a really good exhibit of gorillas.

But the drawback is that it's a very expensive zoo. Considering many zoos are free (Mexico City, Chicago), the £14.50 ($23.78) price for adult admission is pretty steep. You can save 10% buying your ticket online and in advance.

A lot of pictures today, so we won't show you too many zoo animals. But here are the highlights...

We've seen lots of flamingos, but never one with an egg.

And a few young ones wandering around.

The Livingstone's Fruit Bat. This one was about a foot long. Never seen a bat this large!

They had a small aquarium display, with this sign. And it was too small to have sharks, so not really sure why the sign. We wondered where they got the statistics about the chairs. Strange sign!

The lemurs were interesting and they're in an exhibit that you can actually walk around.

Ha! What a cutie!

There are seven gorillas at the zoo. this is Jock, the oldest male. He's 27 years old, stands over 6 feet tall, and weighs 485 pounds!

They have a decent size island to play on. These gorillas were all born in zoos, so this is all they know.

So it's an average zoo, but it does have a few worthwhile attractions. We spent two hours there, but we had just done the Mexico City zoo a few months ago, and it's free. Hard to justify the expensive entrance price unless it's been a while since you've been to a zoo.

From there, we walked over to the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

On the way, we walked by Clifton College. It will cost you £30,000 ($49,000) per year to go to school here!

The bridge is beautiful. Hard to believe it was completed in 1864!

A typical Bristol street. Can any of our North American readers tell us what's missing here? If you can't figure it out, we'll explain it tomorrow!

Bristol Cathedral. Lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day.

The inside of the cathedral...the original sections were built in the 1100's! There are tombs in the church dating to the 1500's.

Cabot Tower will give you the best views of the city. And it's free!

This is Louie! He was up in the tower for the day, doing a special time lapse photography.

Bristol, from the Cabot Tower.

The gardens around the tower are nice.

There are a lot of churches in Bristol!

Park Street, with the Wills Memorial Building at the top. It's part of Bristol University.

Christmas Steps. This narrow street dates back to 1669.

St. Mary Redcliff church. Constructed between the 12th and 15th century! Just missed being bombed in the second world war!

Kevin, beside the piece of tramline that almost hit the church during the war.

What a busy day. We relaxed yesterday evening, and today we're going back downtown because we never made it to the SS Great Britain cruiseliner. Then, we're going to stay with Ruth's cousin for a few weeks where we'll get some relax time!

Bristol uni is also very expensive just like Clifton, one year tuition is nearly $40K. What do they use to teach students with that it is so expensive? Gold plated books? Solid silver pens? Inks made out of cochineal? I didn't even bother applying to Bristol because of their fees even though my school counselors strongly advised me to. To me this place looks fit for the rich, snooty snob types. Not the kind I would like to visit or live in unless you make over a million in a year.

Maybe the expensive tuition goes towards upkeep on the old buildings or just for the prestige of attending the university itself, still pretty expensive for us for sure. There are lots of universities in the United States that cost that much too and again not sure why?!

The city itself isn't a city just for the rich, like any city it is made up of all walks of life and we didn't find it snooty or snobby.

Yesterday morning, I got a phone call from the blablacars driver we had booked, saying that he was ahead of schedule and could we meet him a...

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